Losing obesity weight requires longterm changes in diet and exercise habits. While many who are overweight or obese would like to lose the weight quickly, it's much more beneficial to lose weight gradually. Those who lose only one or two pounds a week are more likely to keep the weight off than those who lose large amounts of weight quickly on a crash diet or heavy exercise regimen. That's because a weight loss program that allows you to lose weight gradually is much easier to maintain over the long term, and can help keep you from slipping back into the old habits that caused your obesity in the first place.
Change Your Eating Habits to Lose Weight
In order to reduce your body fat, you need to change your eating habits. The most important part of your diet should be the fruits, nuts, vegetables, whole grains and low fat dairy products that give you the vitamins, minerals and nutrients that your body needs for optimum good health. Include lean meats, poultry, fish and eggs. Keep your diet low in trans fats, saturated fats, cholesterol, salt and sugars.
Stay within your daily calorie needs; most adults need no more than 2,000 calories per day. Reduce your caloric intake by 500 to 1,000 daily to lose weight.
Get Active and Stay Active
Regular, moderate physical activity is essential to good health. Physical activity increases the number of calories your body burns as fuel, and when you combine increased physical activity with decreased caloric intake, the result is weight loss.
Though decreased caloric intake combined with regular moderate exercise can result in weight loss, the key to keeping the weight off is to continue the regular exercise. Exercise can also reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and it reduces high blood pressure arthritis pain, depression and anxiety.
How do you know when your exercise is intense enough? "Moderate" physical activity means that your respiratory and heart rates increase, but you can still carry on a conversation. Brisk walking, light yard work, playing with children or bicycling casually are all ways of getting moderate exercise.
Vigorous exercise increases your heart rate substantially and makes you breathe too fast for conversation. Jogging, swimming, cross country skiing, jumping rope and playing competitive sports are all examples of vigorous exercise.
Be Patient
Healthy weight loss doesn't happen overnight. You should lose weight at a steady, but gradual, pace of one or two pounds a week. Once you've achieved a healthy weight, you can rely on your new, healthy eating habits and 60 to 90 minutes of moderate physical activity three to five days a week to help you keep the weight off.
Remember that even a modest weight loss of five to ten percent of your total body weight can result in enormous health benefits. It can improve your blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels, and it can help stave off type 2 diabetes by reducing blood sugar levels and promoting insulin sensitivity. Modest weight loss can even prevent deadly diseases such as breast cancer.
